This picture used to be on my bedroom wall when I was young and these guys were my heroes.Back Row; Bob Smith, Keith Heuwen, Ron Haslam.Front Row; Graham Wood, Roger Marshall, Mick Grant, Barry Sheene, Rob McElnea, Mark Salle.

Paul Smart. Can you remember when he won the Imola 200 on a Ducati?

This guy has a lot to answer for!! He made motorcycles and smokin' look cool and the girls in my class loved him. Barry Sheene had a bad influence on me when I was younger. I finally got to meet the man a few months before he died and got him to pose for this photograph. I bet you have never seen him riding a Triumph Tiger Cub before.

My friend – and artist – Andy Fisher is in the new issue of the very entertaining Dirty Magazine getting some well deserved exposure for his print work.

I think one of life's great pleasures is to have the chance to interact with talented and creative people.

(Talking of friends from Kent, I have to thank Phil E for his Kirsty-like appraisal of a certain Kentish town on the coast I was thinking about moving to. "Full of cunts. Nice architecture." Your TV career beckons mate...)

Design, how does this word make sense to you as a motorcycle enthusiast, user, restorer, owner, builder or rebuilder?

A successfully designed motorcycle involves technical issues as god handling, efficient braking capacity, god suspension or no suspension, large capacity fuel tank or just sufficient sized fuel tank and so on depending on its use.There is more to it than technical issues. Its appearance should be a pleasure for your eyes only or it might be an appearance designed to fit an idea of what the designer thought the general public would find OK.The appearance of a bike is linked to its purpose of course, just as much as its technical features are.If you make one special bike for yourself you might not care of its price. On the other hand if you want this bike to sell in any numbers there is a close relation between its price and the level set for its technical features as well as the cost of candy paint or loads of chrome.When talking on price, do not forget that a design involving the making of intricate parts is more time consuming hence more costly than some straight forward but still working parts.

Personally when looking at some of those creations presented in various bike shows and custom bike competitions I find it hard to believe there have been any serious thoughts on what design is actually all about.On the other hand if this is art more than motorcycles there is for sure plenty of creativity in the making.

Still in the end it is all depending on those feelings a person gets when first facing a new bike, whether he/she like it or not.

Below is an example of poorly conceived design with lack of concern for a whole. This is a technically well-functioning light switch with a fluorecent knob but still for sure an unsuccessful design.

My brother Sidney was making some Damien Hirst-esque spin paintings this weekend for his A-level art. We plonked a 2800rpm 500W drill in a machine vice, and ground some flat edges on a bolt. These are the fruits of his labour...

I can't tell exactly what the bike is from these pictures. It has a big twin springer, Peanut tank, bobbed rear fender and it looks like the carb is on the right so based on what I can make out of the motor I'm thinkin' a Pan.

The origins of speedway and dirt-track racing on the Furness peninsular can be traced back to he beach races organised by Barrow & District Motor Club in the 1920s. The club later held a grass track meeting at the Little Park Rugby Ground in Roose on May 26th 1928. The winner of the unlimited races at this meeting was local hero and future Belle Vue and Wembley star Frank Charles , who literally lived over the road from the stadium on North Row, Roose. In 1930, the Northern Motor Sports Club introduced Speedway racing to the Holker Street football stadium. A track made of rolled ashes from Vickers Shipyard was laid around the football pitch and a total of seven meetings were held before the Football club needed to re-turf their pitch in readiness for the new season. The winner of the opening meeting on 12th June 1930 was Eric Airey from Lancaster and over 7000 spectators watched the final meeting on July 28th.

Frank Charles and Eric Airey get ready for a match race at Holker Street in 1930

Not sure of the rider in the white jersey, but the other 2 riders are Roland Stobbart and Frank Burgess. A rare action shot from Holker Street in June 1930

During the 1950s, Cliff Hindle, a local motorcycle enthusiast, built his own private circuit where he and several other enthusiasts could practice prior to riding at Belle Vue and Sheffield, but it wasn't until 1972 that speedway racing returned to Barrow-In-Furness. A new track was constructed around the pitch at Holker Street and Barrow enjoyed three unsettled seasons of league racing at the football stadium, firstly with the Barrow "Happy Faces" who finished 9th in the 1972 second division, and then the Barrow "Bombers" who finished around mid-table in the 1973 and 74 seasons. The football and speedway clubs were uneasy partners though and talks broke down right on the eve of the 1975 season and Holker Street closed its doors to speedway again.

Cliff Hindle enters the scene again in 1977 by building a brand new track and stadium at Park Lane on the outskirts of Barrow﻿. After a season of challenge matches, the "Furness Flyers" entered the 1978 National League, but a weak team finished bottom of the league with only 18 points to their credit and the track did not reopen in 1979. Speedway did make a brief return to Park Lane in 1981 when the temporarily homeless Berwick "Bandits" used the track for 5 league matches and 1 KO Cup match.

Chris Roynon and Andy Reid - 1978(Photo by R.Spencer-Oliver)

Geoff Pusey - 1978

Chris Robins - 1978

In 1983, Chris Roynon purchased the derelict stadium from Cliff Hindle and rebuilt it. Throughout the year he ran monthly stock car meetings and occasional speedway training sessions. A series of seven "open" meetings were then staged in 1984, four of the matches featured the Barrow "Blackhawks" racing in challenge matches and another featured the Barrow "Braves", a team comprised of junior riders. The "Blackhawks also competed in one away fixture at Edinburgh. The Barrow "Blackhawks" entered the 1985 National League, but this was possibly the weakest team ever seen in National League speedway and they were expelled from the league in May. Roynon continued to promote challenge matches and individual trophy meetings at an intermediate level, culminating in the Cumbrian Open Championship on Sept 24th 1985. The last ever speedway meeting to be held at the venue. Stock meetings continued until 1987 when the track was covered over with a greyhound track. Prior to demolition in 1994, local motorcycle dealer Martin Crooks and teenage prospect Grant McDonald used the old track for practice session, but the bikes have remained quiet ever since.